The invention relates to a device for treating particulate material, having a process chamber for accommodating and for treating the material, a bottom of the process chamber being composed of baffle plates which overlap one another and between which slots are formed, via which slots process air can be introduced with an essentially horizontal component movement into the process chamber, the slots being arranged in such a way that two flows directed towards one another are produced, these flows meeting one another along a breaking-up zone and being deflected into a flow directed vertically upwards.
A device of this kind is disclosed by DE 199 04 147 A1.
Such devices serve to dry, granulate or coat a particulate material.
A gaseous medium—“process air”—is introduced into the process chamber via the bottom and enters the process chamber through the numerous slots between the overlapping baffle plates in an approximately horizontally directed manner.
In the device mentioned at the beginning, the slots of the circular bottom extend along secants, and the breaking-up zone is arranged along a diameter. In the region of the breaking-up zone along the diameter, the material is subjected to a vertical movement by the flow directed upwards. After a certain distance, the material divides along the diameter, falls back laterally into the approximately half-disc-shaped bottom regions and is then moved again in the direction of the centre diameter towards the breaking-up zone.
The aim in this technology is to treat the material as effectively as possible. Underlying this is the fact that the material is to be treated as uniformly as possible in the shortest possible time with the least possible expenditure of energy. To treat the material as uniformly as possible, controllable and definable geometries of the material movement are necessary.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to develop a device of the type mentioned at the beginning to the effect that the material can be treated effectively and as uniformly as possible.